Beginning in late December, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will spend several months gathering information about farm economics and production practices from farmers across the Northeastern
region, as the agency conducts the third and final phase of the 2017 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS).

"ARMS is the only survey program that allows anyone to clearly see the current financial well-being of Northeastern producers and their households as a whole," said King Whetstone, director of the NASS Northeastern Regional Field Office. "The
results of this survey will serve as a primary source of information for numerous local and federal policies and programs that affect Northeastern farms and farm families."

NASS conducts ARMS jointly with USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS). In an effort to obtain the most accurate data, the federal agencies will reach out to more than 35,000 producers nationwide, including 1,100 in the Northeastern region,
between January and April 2018. The survey asks producers to provide in-depth data on their operating expenditures, production costs and household characteristics.

"We realize that this survey is lengthy and some producers may have questions or need clarification." explained Whetstone. "In February, our interviewers will begin reaching out to those farmers who have not yet responded to answer any questions
they may have and help them fill out their questionnaires."

In addition to accurate data, NASS is strongly committed to confidentiality. The agency will only publish data in an aggregate form. This helps safeguard the confidentiality of all responses, ensuring no individual respondent or operation can be
identified.

The economic data gathered in ARMS will be published in the annual Farm Production Expenditures report on August 2, 2018. ERS also plans to release a series of reports based on ARMS data. For more information about the 2017 Agricultural
Resource Management Survey visit www.nass.usda.gov/go/ARMS.